When You Were Brats
by opalpendragon
Summary: Metallicana had been trying to figure out how to tell them for a while—to the point where some would argue he'd been putting it off. In the end, he decided to say it the same way he said everything else: bluntly. Lucy and Gajeel may never be the same. (Follow-up of A Day Together)
1. Chapter 1

(A/N: Wow, I can't believe I let this sit for so long. Sorry, guys. Hopefully it's good enough to make up for the wait. Rated T for language thanks to Gajeel and Metallicana.

Typical disclaimers and everything: not mine, wish it was, oh well. Enjoy!)

_Layla Heartphilia was known for many things. She was kind, she was gentle, she was powerful, she was mature—one thing that she was __**not**__, however, was easily intimidated. She could hardly be a well-known Celestial Spirit mage and wife of Jude Heartphilia if she was._

_Of course... the woman had also never been faced with a dragon before._

_Much less two of them._

_"__Oi, Flint-for-Brains!" the bulkier, dark-gray colored one with a great number of spikes hissed at his reddish companion. "I thought you fuckin' said no humans could get in here!"_

_The more lithe of the two glared back at his fellow dragon. "Don't you try to lay this on __**me**__, Shrapnel-Face! You were the one who checked the perimeter, not me! My barrier's perfect for keeping the little pink monkeys out, but that doesn't do us much good if they're __**already **__**in**__!"_

_Layla, by this time, had mostly managed to swallow down her nerves. Mostly. The woman cleared her throat delicately, shoving her shoulders back and standing straight as she faced down the two scaled behemoths. Idly, in the back of her mind, she mused that it was much like walking in on her husband's board meetings. "I do sincerely apologize for interrupting," she spoke clearly, a soft smile on her face crafted to keep things calm. "I was actually looking for my daughter, you see. She ran off this way earlier, and it's getting dark."_

_They both stared at her blankly for a moment, before they shot each other a glance and began laughing uproariously. It wasn't every day they came across a human that could speak to them without trembling._

_"__I like 'er!" the gray one howled. "She's got spunk!"_

_The red nodded enthusiastically, lowing himself so that his face was closer to her level. He grinned, all massive teeth and crinkling scales. "What's your name, human?"_

_She smiled back pleasantly. "Layla Heartphilia. And you gentlemen?"_

_"__**I**__ am the great and mighty Igneel," he introduced himself with a flourish of his wings and much self-importance. "And that spiked lizard over there is Metallicana. Feel free to ignore him."_

_"__Fuck you!"_

_Layla nodded sagely, genteel smile still firmly on her lips. "And I don't suppose you might have seen my daughter running about? She's about this tall, blonde, and she was wearing a blue dress."_

_They both frowned thoughtfully, but slowly shook their heads._

_"__You sure the little brat came in this direction?" the recently named Metallicana double-checked as he huffed in slight irritation. He disliked not having the desired answer for the woman, but there was nothing he could do at the moment. They had bigger concerns to deal with—namely what they were going to do if the Dragon King kicked the bucket. Old bastard had been pretty sick lately._

_"__Oh, yes," the young mother confirmed worriedly, her smile slipping slightly as she held up a bright blue ribbon. "This is hers. My spirit Capricorn and I found it snagged on some bushes not far from here._

_Igneel shifted anxiously. "Oi, Shrapnel-Face..." he spoke slowly._

_"__What?"_

_"__Wind's blowing West today, right?"_

_"__Congratulations, Matchstick-Claws! You can tell directions! Do that all by yourself, did'ja?" came the sarcastic reply._

_"__And didn't we stash the little brats a bit further to the __**East**__?" the red dragon asked somewhat nervously, completely ignoring his companion's sour outburst. "You know... the direction the wind would be __**coming from**__?"_

_The gray dragon was silent for a moment. "Fuck. Your brat ever see an actual female before?"_

_"__Not since I've had him," Igneel admitted sheepishly. "Yours?"_

_"__I've been tryin' to go over the basic differences 'tween a male and female with him lately. He actually fuckin' asked me if he was s'posed to eat one if he ever saw one," Metallicana winced. "We better go check on 'em."_

"Hold it!" Gajeel bellowed, jolting to his feet as he shot an accusatory glare at his adopted father. "Are you fuckin' shitting me?!"

Still sitting at the base of their tree and holding a wide-eyed Pantherlily in her lap, the dragon slayer's very pregnant mate was blinking owlishly. "You mean you knew my mom?" the blonde blurted out incredulously. "And Gajeel and Natsu actually met _before_ the whole Phantom Lord thing?"

"Sorta," the dragon shifted a bit uncomfortably. "Look, don't interrupt me! Just let me finish the goddamn story."

Gajeel began to protest, but Lucy caught his wrist and pulled him back down onto the picnic blanket with a warning glare that he begrudgingly heeded. He happened to like their bed, and he _really_ didn't want to get kicked out of it for the next two or three weeks. Especially not with how close their kid's due date was getting.

The dragon chuckled quietly to himself as he watched the exchange, stretching out just a bit more in the sunlight as he huffed.

"Where the hell was I? Oh, right. We went lookin' for _you_ brats."


	2. Chapter 2

(A/N: Yes, yes, here I disclaim: not mine, never has been, but I love it anyway. Oh, well.)

_Igneel dropped his barrier, grabbing a quick hold on Layla and dropping her atop his head. "Hang on," he warned her._

_The woman only had a heartbeat to comply, wrapping her arms around one of his fewer spikes, before both dragons were racing through the forest. She squeaked slightly in alarm, but they somehow managing to avoid the trees as they briefly took to the air. For a moment, her keys pulsed comfortingly and she felt like she could almost touch the stars—but then they were landing again, and she had more important things to be concerned about._

_Her little nine-year-old daughter was there, dress in tatters and with crudely bandaged knees, together with two dirty little boys about her age or a bit older. There was a small fire still burning, and evidence of a meal, but the three youngsters weren't sitting around it. They actually appeared to be fighting, considering how her delicate little Lucy had just landed a sturdy kick to the little pink-haired boy's jaw and sent him flying towards the treeline._

_"__Lucy Heartphilia!" she shouted, sliding off the dragon's forehead without even asking for his help. "What in Spirit's name do you think you're doing?! You will cease that behavior immediately and apologize!"_

_The tiny blonde cringed, but both boys rushed to stand in front of her protectively._

_"__We was jus' teachin' her how to fight!" the pink-haired boy whined, his black eyes big and imploring as he rubbed at his forming bruise sheepishly._

_The slightly taller, raven-haired boy just glared at the woman and growled._

_"__'S okay, Gajeel-kun," she murmured, touching her hand to his shoulder as she docilely came out from behind the two. "She's my Mama."_

_The smaller of the two boys relaxed a bit, but Gajeel did not._

_"__Well, she shouldn'ta fuckin' lost ya in the first place!" he hissed, refusing to take his ruby eyes off of the woman—whose own had widened slightly at the sight of such a young boy cursing so fluently. "'N then she went an' yelled at ya! Nuh-uh. Don' think so. She can't have ya." He maneuvered her back behind their backs with one arm, barely shooting the dragons a glace._

_Said dragons stared at the trio incredulously. When they'd left, the boys kept alternating between ignoring each other and fighting._

_"__Natsu, Gajeel," Igneel scolded as he shoved off his shock to stalk closer to them. "This little girl belongs to Layla, here. You need to give her back now."_

_Natsu wilted slightly, but stepped aside. "Sorry, Luce," he mumbled._

_Gajeel just growled even louder. "No way!" he barked, shooting Natsu a nasty glare for his betrayal. "That lady fuckin' lost her, an' then __**I**__ found her, so that means she's mine now! An' I ain't gonna share with the flaming bastard 'nymore, either!"_

_The little girl's eye started twitching, but it went unnoticed._

_"__Now you listen here, brat!" Metallicana growled at his adopted son. "That ain't the way the world works, an' the little female brat is still the woman's whether she lost 'er or not!" But then, his adopted son's previous words began to process and he froze. "Yers?" he repeated slowly._

_Igneel started laughing hysterically._

_Layla gritted her teeth. "I did not __**lose**__ my daughter," she informed primly. "She managed that on her own quite nicely. And I would not have yelled if she were not engaging in violence. Lucy, come here."_

_The tiny blonde's jaw dropped. "It wasn't violence, Mama, they were __**teaching**__ me!" she scowled as she shoved her way out from behind the overprotective dragon slayer before her. "And I wasn't lost, I was taking a walk. You tol' me to wait by the fountain and we'd go for a walk after Papa's meeting—but then Papa's meeting was over, an' I asked 'n everything, but Supetto-san said you were busy an' wanted me to go back to the library for lessons—but you __**promised**__ I could go on a walk this afternoon, an' Celestial Spirit mages __**never**__ break a promise, so I went on my walk __**without you**__! But then I fell, and scraped my knees, and Gajeel found me and brought be back here 'cause it was gettin' late and I was hungry, an' him and Natsu had caught some fish earlier and shared it with me. And if I really was lost, I coulda just asked Hologorium which way was home!"_

_Natsu backed away from the girl nervously._

_Gajeel stared at her with something akin to awe._

_The red dragon's hysterics continued._

_"__Lucy... I never said that we __**wouldn't**__ go for a walk this afternoon," Layla sighed tiredly. "I simply wanted you to wait for me in the library because my business with your father and his partner was going to take another hour or so and I was worried about you sitting outside alone for that long."_

_The little girl looked scandalized. "You and Papa wanted me to sit with Prince Junelle again, didn't you?" she accused, horrified._

_The woman winced, giving her all the answer she needed._

_"__Mama, he likes my dolls more than I do!" the tiny blonde screeched. "He's creepy, and he smells funny, an' you can tell Papa that I am never, __**ever**__ gonna marry that weirdo! Not in a million, billion years!"_

_Again, Layla winced. "Lucy, calm down," she tried to sooth._

_"__What's 'may-ree' mean?" Natsu interrupted the exchange curiously, his nose wrinkling in his confusion._

_"__It means I'd hafta kiss the nasty guy!" Lucy informed agitatedly._

_Gajeel growled low, too low for the humans to catch the sound and Natsu was too busy asking what a kiss was to notice—but the dragons heard._

_And Igneel's laughter continued, despite his scales taking on an almost purple hue._

_"__Fuck," Metallicana groaned, dropping heavily to the forest floor and covering his face with his forelegs. "__**Fuck**__. Why now? Why not in a few more years? Ten? Five? I'da taken __**three**__. Fuck."_

_Little Lucy temporarily forgot her ire to stare at the dragons with wide eyes and a rapidly paling face._

_Natsu approached the red one, who had finally fallen over in his laughter and knocked down a nearby tree. "Dad? What's so funny?"_

_"__What'sa matter with __**you**__, ya shitty lizard?" Gajeel demanded of the gray one, his brows furrowed slightly in concern._

_Seeing that her new friends knew the behemoths, the tiny blonde forced herself to calm down._

_Besides, they were kinda pretty... in a scary sort of way._

_The two boys, after awaiting an answer for several minutes, decided that they weren't going to get one and went back to playing with Lucy—though Gajeel tried his best to keep Natsu from getting too close, calling the pinkette a traitor and claiming that the girl was his alone._

_"__Oi, woman!" Metallicana barked tiredly as he shoved himself back onto his feet. "We, uh... need to talk 'bout somethin'. Let Flint-for-Brains watch the brats for a bit an' follow me."_

_Layla turned to check on her daughter; but the tiny blonde was already being entertained once more by Gajeel and Natsu._

_Slowly, the blonde woman nodded and followed him into the trees._

Gajeel stared up at his adoptive father slack-jawed, unable to believe that the shitty lizard had been keeping something like this hidden for so long.

The dragon in question just stretched out and yawned, glancing over at the sun where it was drifting closer and closer to the horizon. He pushed himself to his feet, turning back around and heading for his cave.

"That's enough for today," he called over his shoulder. "Come back in the mornin' an' I'll tell ya the rest. Oh, and bring me some fuckin' iron."


	3. Chapter 3

(A/N: I do not own Fairy Tail. Again. Must you always remind me?)

_Metallicana stared at the blonde, trying to figure out how to tell her so she'd understand. Hell, he still wasn't sure if __**he**__ understood. Damn it all! Why the hell couldn't this have come a few years down the road?_

_"__My brat," he finally spoke. "Gajeel. Ya know how he was sayin' your brat's his an' all?"_

_Layla eyed him warily. "Yes."_

_"__Well, ya see... About that..." he shifted uncomfortably, wishing for one of the first times in his life that he was more skilled with words. "Uh... fuck. She kinda is," he just blurted out._

_Her eye began to twitch and he just knew he had said that wrong._

_"__What I mean is!" he rushed to finish before she could jump down his throat. "Ya know how the lil brat was talkin' about marryin' that damn Prince or some shit? She can't do that. She's gotta mate Gajeel someday. 'S predestined and all that crap."_

_Her eyes bugged and she opened her mouth to speak, and he just knew that that hadn't been the right thing to say either._

_"__'S a dragon thing!" he quickly bellowed._

_Layla's jaw snapped shut and she visibly took several deep breaths before she spoke. "You're telling me that my nine-year-old daughter is __**predestined**__ for the little black-haired boy back there who kept glaring at me?" she clarified, her voice slightly strained as she took a seat on a nearby boulder._

_Metallicana nodded enthusiastically. Finally, she was getting it!_

_"__Explain this to me, please," she demanded authoritatively._

_Or not. He sighed heavily and laid down, eying her tense form cautiously. "When a dragon's born," he explained slowly, "their spirit ain't really whole. A piece of the fuckin' thing ends up with their mate, an' a piece of their mate's ends up stickin' with them. 'S the same for dragon slayers. Now, from the looks'a things, __**my**__ little brat found the missin' piece of himself in __**your**__ little brat. So, yeah. She's his mate—or, she will be. Make sense?"_

_"__No," she sniffed primly. "It does not."_

_"__Dammit," he groaned. "Look, she's his. An' he's hers. I dunno how to fuckin' explain it other than that!"_

_"__She is __**nine**__," the woman glared slightly. "She is far too young for—for __**mating**__, or anything of the sort!"_

_He snorted. "An' yet she's old enough for you an' __**yer**__ mate to talk about marryin' her off? 'S the same damn difference. They sure as hell ain't gonna claim each other yet, but they sure as shit __**will**__ someday, 'cause that's just the way it has'ta fuckin' be!"_

_She growled at him. Rather impressively, for a human._

_The dragon growled back slightly before sighing heavily. "Look. It don't matter what __**you**__ say, or what __**I**__ say, or even what __**they**__ say. My little brat is already feelin' his instincts actin' up over her, an' for a dragon that __**means**__ shit."_

_"__She isn't a dragon!" the woman declared almost hysterically. "And neither is he! They are children, Metallicana-san, and that __**also**__ means something."_

_He roared in frustration. "Dammit, woman! I ain't sayin' they gotta mate today, just that it's gonna happen!"_

_Layla stared at him for a moment, her face carefully blank. Finally, she sighed and slumped against her boulder. "What... what exactly does it mean, that my daughter is his mate?"_

_Metallicana sighed again, hoping against hope that she was finally listening to him instead of just waiting her turn to shriek._

_"__It means they complete each other," he huffed. "'S a good thing, woman. Means the little brats got each other. Or, they will. We gotta separate 'em for now, since they really are too fuckin' young for this shit. If we ain't careful, they'll bond too much too quick and we won't be able to keep 'em apart without it hurtin' them."_

_She was silent for a moment. "It could hurt them?" she whispered fearfully._

_The dragon snorted. "Ya find out you ain't whole, but ya get the chance to feel like ya are 'cause you're close to someone else—and then ya ain't again as soon as they ain't there anymore? Yeah, it could hurt 'em. Would just be fuckin' cruel."_

_Layla swallowed heavily. "So what do we do about this?"_

_"__I dunno," he admitted sheepishly. "Most dragons don't even ever __**find**__ their goddamn true mates, much less when they're both brats. All I can think of is to get 'em away from each other 'fore the bond becomes too close."_

_She sighed tiredly. "And if that doesn't work?"_

_He winced. "Dunno. Guess we'll hafta find another way."_

_She nodded softly, pushing herself from her perch before walking up to the dragon with a determined expression on her face. "I will make you a deal, Metallicana-san," she offered prudently._

_He met her gaze expectantly. "What kinda deal?"_

_"__We separate them, as you suggested," she spoke calmly. "When I return home, I will make certain that my husband knows that I am against marrying Lucy off without her approval. You will train your son to be an honorable man, who could one day take care of my daughter and love her like she deserves. In ten years or so, we reintroduce them—and, if they truly are meant to be as you've claimed, we allow things to take their course. But not today."_

_He nodded slowly. "An' if the bond's already too close to keep 'em apart that long?" the dragon pointed out cautiously._

_Layla shook her head tiredly. "I'm afraid I just don't know. Perhaps we can have them continue to meet every few months or so? But... I don't know. Wouldn't that also effect the bond, as you called it?"_

_They both slumped._

_"__I hate doin' this," Metallicana finally grumbled, "but I can ask the fuckin' Flint-for-Brains if he's got any ideas. He's a tricky bastard every now and then, so he might be able to come up with somethin'."_

_She smiled at him gratefully. "At the very least," she murmured as she glanced up at the twilit sky, "it would seem as if we will have to spend the night."_

_He shrugged as he stood, turning to head back to the camp. "Eh. If ya want."_

_The woman nodded slightly and moved to follow him. "Thank you. We'll be certain to leave in the morning—I'm sure my husband will be worried."_

_Again, the dragon shrugged. "Well, c'mon."_

Neither Gajeel nor Lucy had any idea what to think of this story. They had met when they were children? If that was the case, why didn't they remember?

The blonde leaned against her slayer quietly, also trying to process this new side of her mother; the eternally calm, gentle woman who she had never, ever known to raise her voice or argue with someone.

Pantherlily calmly pulled out the picnic basket, placing their lunch out on the blanket while Metallicana got up to get a drink from the nearby river.

"Mama knew _everything_," Lucy finally breathed quietly. "She never told me anything. Just that someday I'd find my own path, and that Papa just didn't understand what was in store for me."

Gajeel pulled her up onto his lap, also still trying to wrap his brain around the new information. "Guess this is what the fuckin' lizard meant when he said he'd been waiting for this since that Phantom Lord shit," he murmured with a sigh. "Damn, Bunny Girl. How the fuck did we forget?"

She shook her head, turning around slightly to bury her face in his shoulder.

Lily watched them quietly for a moment. "I'm sure we'll learn what happened shortly," he finally assured, watching as Metallicana came back into the clearing and sat down to eat his own lunch of iron and fresh deer.

The two mages both nodded slightly at the cat, knowing that he was right.

But then again, neither one of them had ever been exceedingly patient.


	4. Chapter 4

(A/N: Disclaimer, not mine, enjoy the story. Thanks for reading, everyone!)

_Metallicana and Layla reentered the clearing to find Igneel sleeping near the now blazing fire... and the children missing._

_The blonde woman began panicking, and the dragon immediately went to smack his red companion awake. "Dammit, Flint-Face!" he bellowed as he whacked the firedrake's thick skull multiple times with a closed fist. "Where the fuck did the little brats go?!"_

_Igneel jolted awake at the rough treatment, immediately retaliating with a tail-sweep to the bulkier gray's legs._

_They tussled for a few moments before Layla broke up the fight._

_"__Enough!" she barked testily. "Igneel-san, where are the children?!"_

_The red's face scrunched up in confusion. "What are you talking about, where are they? They're right—" he turned to point towards the fire, but froze. "Oh, shit, where are the children?!"_

_"__That's what we fuckin' wanna know!" Metallicana roared in frustration._

_"__Well they were sleeping last I checked!" the red defended himself, rushing over to the fire and snuffling around near the cinders in a move that reminded Layla decidedly of a dog. He turned towards the trees, rushing off in the opposite direction of where his fellow dragon and the human woman had been talking previously. "They went this way! Move your asses already!"_

_Metallicana growled at his companion's idiocy, but snatched Layla from the ground and placed her up on his forehead much like Igneel had just earlier that very afternoon. "Grab a spike and hold on, woman," he instructed as he hurried to follow the red._

_She complied quickly, and soon the dragons had taken to the air._

_Once again, Layla was in a place where she could almost touch the stars if she reached far enough—but she was no longer in a position to enjoy it. All she could think of was her little girl, with her pretty blonde hair mussed up and dirty and her poor little knees bloody but wrapped up carefully with strips of her tattered dress. And those two little boys, dirty and coarse-seeming in their demeanor but they had also seemed to value her daughter. Especially the little black-haired one, whose dragon had claimed they were destined to be together as 'mates' one day._

_The woman swallowed thickly, trying to push past her worry and focus on finding the three. Her magic was still too low to summon another gold key after having held Capricorn out for three hours, but perhaps she could call up a silver key. Who could she call, though? She had already given Hologorium to Lucy, not that he would have helped much in a search. Neither would Crux or Lyra, for that matter. Oh, if only she'd thought to buy that Lupus key at the magic shop when she had seen it last month! __**They**__ could track to a certain degree!_

_She gritted her teeth and shook her head. No, that wouldn't have worked anyway. Aquarius had already made it quite clear how she felt about the Celestial wolves—and it was far too late to be bemoaning what could have been, anyway._

_Was there really nothing she could do but hang on and pray for the best?_

_"__I see them!" Igneel called out, diving for the trees with Metallicana swooping in right behind him._

_The sight that met them was most certainly not what they had expected, and none of the three could find it in themselves to either look away or stop the exchange. It was almost reminiscent of a train wreck._

_"__Luuuuce! We said we were sorry!" Natsu whined, trudging tiredly after the miffed little girl hiding away in her clock spirit._

_"__'You might have, but Gajeel didn't!' she says," Hologorium recited loyally._

_"__Oh, get over it!" said black-haired boy scowled. "It was just a rabbit! You're the one who wanted to learn how to hunt!"_

_"__'You __**killed**__ it!' she says." came the indignant reply._

_"__Where the hell did you think meat came from?!"_

_There was a slight pause, and the clock spirit stopped walking. "'... Cook makes it,' she says," was finally answered hesitantly._

_Natsu frowned. "What's a kook?"_

_"__'__**Cook**__! Cook is the one who makes our food for us.' she says." was the response._

_"__You have someone who makes your food for you?!" the pinkette gasped._

_Gajeel growled darkly. "Look, it was just a rabbit. You said you fuckin' liked rabbits. I don't see the problem here!"_

_"__'Bunnies are for cuddling, not for eating!' she says."_

_The raven-haired boy sneered and crossed his arms. "Girls are stupid," he proclaimed decidedly._

_"__And weird," Natsu added. "Who has someone to make food __**for**__ them?"_

_"__'I am not stupid!' she says," came an indignant shriek. "'__**Or**__ weird! You're both just big meanie-heads, and I never wanna talk to you ever again!' she says."_

_Both boys stared at the clock's back with wide eyes._

_"__You don't mean that!" Gajeel finally barked accusingly. His eyes were lit with slight desperation, but none could see it but the still silent adults._

_"__Yeah, Luce! We're friends!" Natsu yelped._

_"__Apologies, Miss," the spirit spoke evenly. "My time is up."_

_With a poof, Lucy was once more sitting on the forest floor, staring up at her two new friends as their eyes bore into her. She squeaked._

_Gajeel growled quietly, but looked away from her. "Look, I'm fuckin' __**sorry**__," he finally forced out. "You said ya liked bunnies, and ya wanted to know about huntin'. I thought you'd be happy with the damn thing."_

_She stared at him for a long time before nodding slightly. "Okay," she sighed as she stood up. "You're forgiven, Gajeel. I'm sorry, too."_

_The boy snorted and turned around to head back to camp, his ears turning ever so slightly red. But then he caught sight of his parent figure, together with the other two adults, and he choked on his tongue as he quickly backpedaled. "Shitty lizard!" he yipped as he tripped over his own feet, ending up sprawled on the ground next to Lucy. "What are you doing here?!"_

_Metallicana stared down at the boy. "You brought her a __**rabbit**__?"_

_It was no longer just Gajeel's ears that were red. "So what?!" he barked, trying to cover up his embarrassment._

_Once more, Igneel fell over in hysterical laughter._

_The gray dragon just shook his head, feeling tired. This shit was coming way too soon. "Back to the fuckin' camp, brats," he grunted. "Now."_

_Layla climbed down from her perch on his face to walk with the three, but she shot a glance at the dragons that demanded to know what was going on as soon as the children were asleep._

_Metallicana sighed tiredly. __**Great**__. Now he got to explain more shit about dragon instincts to a human._

Gajeel felt his eye twitching.

Lucy frowned. "I don't get it. What about him bringing me a dead rabbit had anything to do with his instincts?"

Metallicana sniggered. "'S all about bein' a provider," he explained. "Back then, the little brat didn't have any way to provide for a female but food—so he was tryin' to impress you by bringing ya a kill. Didn't work too damn well."

The iron slayer snorted. "Yeah, well Bunny Girl's always been pretty damn difficult to please."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "What's _that_ supposed to mean?"

But Metallicana started laughing, drawing their attention back to him.

"What?" they snapped at the same time.

"I-I never caught that!" the dragon choked out. "H-he calls ya Bunny Girl! He brought ya a dead fuckin' bunny! Pfft!"

Neither of the mates had any idea what to say to that, but Pantherlily faked a cough to hide his own laughter.

"A-anyway," Metallicana managed to wheeze. "Where was I...? Oh, yeah. So we got back to the camp..."


	5. Chapter 5

(A/N: Last chapter, but it's a little bit longer than the others. Thanks so much for reading, and to those of you who reviewed! Yet again; FT is not mine! I swear, if I was Mashima, my lovely crack pairings would be cannon. Then again, I would also demand my own exceed. So it's probably good that I'm not.)

_Layla sat quietly, trying to process Metallicana's words from earlier. It seemed that it was too late to turn around and keep the children away from each other—something about how the little boy's instincts already had him attempting to provide for her daughter. They would need to see each other at least once every week or two at this point, according to the dragon. He and the blonde woman both agreed to instigate the meetings, preferably when neither one was training._

_To get back at Igneel for laughing, the gray dragon also suggested bringing Natsu along—and since the little pinkette was the only child still awake, he heard it. Needless to say, Igneel was now backed into a corner on that matter._

_Layla got the feeling that the three would have all sneaked off to see each other, anyway._

_Arguments over dead rabbits notwithstanding._

_The two blondes left in the morning, as did the dragons with their adopted sons. They all agreed to meet back in the same place in a week's time, and the adults had to practically pry their children away from one another before they took off in different directions._

_Lucy pouted the whole way home, and Layla was rather certain that the other two were in much the same mood—but there was nothing to help it._

_"__You'll see them again," she promised the tiny blonde reassuringly._

_Lucy just huffed, proving to be a lost cause._

_Layla shook her head, deciding to give her daughter time to mope. She would get over it again soon enough._

_They arrived back home around mid-morning, giving them plenty of time to placate Jude and the servants back into a calm before they really had to get started on the day. Though, Layla noted, Lucy refused any meat at breakfast._

_Apparently learning that it came from animals had temporarily made the stuff vile to the softhearted little girl._

_Again, Layla shook her head and assured herself that it wouldn't last too long._

_The blonde woman handed Lucy off to Supetto-san, directing her to get the tiny blonde bathed and ready for the day in time for her lessons. And then she took her own shower, and it was suddenly time to face her husband about the whole thing._

_She stood before her husband's office door and swallowed thickly, trying to decide if this warranted knocking or not._

_Shaking her head yet again, she just reached for the knob and pushed the door open. "Jude?" she spoke softly, drawing his attention away from his pile of paperwork. She smiled at him peacefully, prompting him to return the gesture. "Can I talk to you for a few minutes?"_

_He frowned, glancing at the large pile of papers before sighing. "Sure, Layla," he finally decided. "Is this about your and Lucy's disappearance?"_

_She pouted slightly. "We didn't mean to disappear, dear. Actually, it turns out that Lucy simply wanted to go on the walk that I promised her, and forgot that she was supposed to wait for me to come along," she giggled lightly._

_Jude relaxed slightly and chuckled along with her, and she breathed a soundless sigh of relief. That was one step out of the way._

_Now to see if she couldn't make him see sense._

_"__Actually, Jude, I was thinking," she spoke quietly, making her way to his desk where she perched slightly against the corner of the thing. "You know how so many families have been offering marriage contracts for Lucy lately?"_

_He eyed her suspiciously. "Yes?"_

_She frowned. That was never a good reaction from her hardheaded husband. "I was thinking, lately, that I would rather not have anything to do with those things until Lucy is older. And I think it would be best to allow her to choose her own spouse, whether she meets them through these contracts or not."_

_It was Jude's turn to frown. "Layla, these are very profitable business ventures. It's a way to tie the Heartphilia Konzern with another—"_

_"__Jude, you're not listening to me," she interrupted. "This is our __**daughter**__ that you're talking about. Not a business asset. And I believe that it would be best for her to find her own happiness, like we did."_

_The man's frown deepened, his eyes narrowing slightly as he studied her. "You're not thinking this through."_

_"__No, Jude," she huffed. "__**You're**__ not thinking it through. When did our daughter become just another asset to you? She is so much more valuable than anything these people could offer us."_

_Her husband's expression became closed-off. "I have more work to be doing right now, Layla. We can talk about this later."_

_She sighed tiredly, but knew a dismissal when she saw one._

_"__Alright, Jude. We'll talk about it later."_

_She tried to shake off the sinking feeling that 'later' might never come, and went to go find Lucy. The blonde woman felt the need to just hold her little girl for a few minutes—before she wasn't so little anymore. She was already nearly ten years old, and in ten more years she would probably be married. Or... mated._

_Layla sighed. She would have to get used to that term._

_If nothing else, meeting the dragons and their adopted children had definitely put things back in perspective; the blonde shuddered at the thought that just the day before, she had nearly fallen to the same line of thinking as her husband. To see their baby as just another business asset. Because, to be honest, she had also stuttered over the offered contract with the Junelles._

_But that had been wrong of her, and she swore to herself that she would make it up to Lucy even if it took the rest of her life._

_A week later, the tiny blonde was reunited with her friends—and the week after that, and the week after that. Layla continued to keep the dragons and their sons a secret from Jude and the staff, and Lucy followed her lead; but when they were in private, Gajeel and Natsu were the little blonde's favorite topic. She would talk about them whenever she could, and Layla came to the realization that they were Lucy's first friends that weren't Celestial Spirits._

_Again, she found herself swearing that she would be a better parent in the years to come. And that most certainly included giving her time with the little dragon slayers._

_It didn't hurt that she had also become friends with the boys' parents, either—despite their apparent standoffish ways, they were quite easy to get along with once one took the time to get to know them._

_But then she got sick, and the meetings became fewer and further between. She did her best to convince Jude to let Lucy make her own choices, but he would simply say it was the fever talking and refused to listen to her anymore. It got to the point where she might have just taken her daughter and left, but she couldn't even travel anymore. She was dying and she knew it._

_She saw the dragons once more, only to learn that they were also having to face the possibility of leaving their boys._

_Together, the three mourned. And the three prayed for something to change._

_But nothing did, and they all disappeared from their kids' lives, leaving the three alone in the world._

_All they had left was the prayer that the three would one day find each other again._

"And ya did. So there's yer story," Metallicana finished up, nodding sagely to himself as he stretched out in the fading sunlight. "Ya can go back home now, stupid brat. Yer female's lookin' pretty fuckin' tired."

"Hold it, you shitty lizard!" Gajeel barked. "That don't explain how we can't fuckin' remember all this crap!"

The dragon huffed. "How'm I supposed to know?" he grunted. "The three of ya sneaked off to town one day an' supposedly met some other little brat named Doofus or some shit. From what I understand, the stupid little human was learnin' Memory Magic and fuckin' ripped everything about the four of ya outta yer brains or somethin' like that after a few months. So since ya didn't remember anyway, an' she was already sick, Layla an' me just decided to keep with our first fuckin' idea and have ya meet in ten years—but then she died the same year as the Dragon King, may the old bastard rest in peace, and shit got fucked up. Ya ended up meetin' eight years later, anyway—even if it _was_ a shitty reunion."

Lucy stiffened. "Doofus?" she repeated. "You don't happen to mean _Rufus_, would you? Rufus Liore, maybe?"

"That's the little bastard!" the dragon confirmed brightly. "You met him again, too? Squeaky, annoying little thing. Blonde, I think he was."

Gajeel growled darkly, feeling his eye twitch. "I'm gonna fuckin' kill him."

"Wait, how did you know so much about what my mom was doing?" Lucy demanded, catching an inconsistency.

Metallicana snorted. "She _told_ me, little brat. Damn woman talked more than you do."

Gajeel and Lily both sniggered, but Lucy shot the dragon a glare as she got to her feet. "Yeah, well, see if I—" she suddenly winced, one hand flying to her stomach as she steadied herself on her mate's shoulder.

"Bunny?" Gajeel questioned cautiously, easing himself up without knocking her off-balance.

"Uh..." she blinked a few times, before wincing again. "I think I might need to go to the doctor," she announced. "Just maybe. I mean, I could be wrong, but..."

The slayer's eyes widened. "Ya mean... the kid?" he choked. She nodded. "Oh. Oh, fuck." He hoisted the blonde up into his arms immediately. "Lily, go back to the house and get our shit! I'm takin' Lucy on to the doctor!" he hollered over his shoulder as he ran off in the direction of Magnolia.

Lily also joined the frenzy, rushing off to the house to collect their bags so that he could be on his way to the hospital.

Metallicana just grinned, grabbed their discarded picnic basket and blanket, and took them back to his cave for safekeeping. He'd known this was coming for the past three hours, and he was quite pleased with himself for timing his story so well as to keep his little brat from picking up on the blonde's change in scent and freaking out about it.

He grinned even wider to himself, wondering if it was going to end up being a little male or a little female. Either way, he was sure it was going to have quite a mouth on it. That much was obvious from its parents.

And grandparents, he had to admit to himself. Neither he nor Layla ever did stay too quiet.


End file.
